Announcing Zoom Player v4.03 final, Fixes Options

[Blight]

This version contains a few important fixes.

Version 4.10 is in the works with newly requested features.

Changes from v4.02:

CODE

* Some new functionality in the Communication interface.

+ If you were using a custom keyboard file with versions prior to
  4.02, navigation keys may not work unless you rebuild the custom
  file with the new "nvAddKey" commands (see default.key).

- Fixed a "List Index Out of Bounds" error on the customized media
  playback configuration dialog when pressing the "Update Selected
  Profile" button with no profiles selected.

- Fixed a "List Index Out of Bounds" error when trying to open an
  Archive file that contained no media files.

- The Disable VMR7 Overlay setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings)
  had the opposite intended function.
 
- Fixed Freezes when opening files with multiple audio tracks.  

- Fixed a cosmetic glitch on the DVD Context Menu under certain languages.

Download v4.03 here.

[swgreed]

- Fixed Freezes when opening files with multiple audio tracks.  

Thanks for this one

[mitko]

....
* When enabling Customized Media Playback, Zoom Player will now scan
  all the customized media profiles to make sure each profile is
  registered on your system.  If a profile is not registered then
  Zoom Player will go through all the profiles in a category to
  see if it can find one that is registered.  This removes the
  requirements for initially setting each profile manually.
....

Blight,
am I right in thinking that if one of my prefered profiles is not fully registered at the moment of enabling Customized Media Playback I will lose my settings to a profile that is fully registered?
If I'm correct will it be possible for you to add an option to turn off this behaviour of the player?
I don't like "clever" applications that do stuff without my knowlage.

[Blight]

mitko:
It only does it when you enable the checkbox for customized media. If your checkbox was already enabled, it won't change anything.

[mitko]

I know this but never the less I think that it should at least ask before changing my settings. After all the advanced user should be aware of all the changes of his setup

[louismo]

I've found a bug in File Navigator Popup.

(CASE 1) In normal,
*** the path of a media file embeded with no Chinese Characters. ***

1. playback a movie through clicking on a media file in Windows Explorer

2. When playback a movie, press {enter} to pop-up File Navigator.

3. File Navigator should display the media file with its current directory.


(CASE 2) Bug occurs,
*** if the path of a media file embeded with some Chinese Characters. ***

eg. d:\{some Chinese Characters}\filename

1. playback a movie through clicking on a media file in Windows Explorer

2. When playback a movie, press {enter} to pop-up File Navigator.

3. File Navigator can't display the current directory of the media file.
Instead, it only display the root directory of the media file, not the
Sub-directory of the media file that's located.

More odd happens, it only happen intermittently.

ie. In (CASE2), the bug happens in 1, 3, 5, 7......times of opening a media file
through association, it will be normal in 2, 4, 6......times of opening.

Thanks.

[Blight]

Can you type in some sample path/file names for me to cut & paste to experiment on?

[louismo]

"l:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg"
"l:\Movie and Animation\加藤愛\加藤愛_溫泉片_１２分鐘_未經處理版.mpg"

The above examples can cause the errors.

Hope this can help.

[Blight]

I can't reproduce this... I created the directories (I have asian fonts installed) and running it from explorer and opening the file navigator works just fine (the file is properly highlighted).

[louismo]

It's very strange.

Here is the hint.


The PlayListNav can point the right path while the File Navigator can't.


It means that the internal path memory is different between the
PlayListNav and the File Navigator.

Hope this can help too.

[Madsly]

Blight, can you make detection of NTSC/PAL DVD (mkv, divx, dv) content and auto switch to proper resolution?

IMO Better way to launch NTSC/PAL profile in PowerStrip and make additional option to switch without PowerStrip (for ex. ntsc - 640x480x120, for pal - 768x576x100 ).

[Blight]

louismo:
You can't even navigate into these paths?

madsly:
Once a DVD has been converted to mkv/divx/etc... it is no longer PAL/NTSC. I may add a feature to execute an external program when detecting PAL/NTSC DVDs. But from what I understand, you can already do it with AnyDVD.

[louismo]

Here are the symptoms:

1. Playback "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg"
2. The clip is playing
3. Press {enter}, FileNavigator can display "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg" correctly
4. Press {Shift+N} PlayListNav can display "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg" correctly
5. Exit Zoomplayer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Playback "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg" AGAIN
7. The clip is playing
8. Press {enter}, FileNavigator CAN'T display "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg", it ONLY display "L:\"
9. 4. Press {Shift+N} PlayListNav can STILL display "L:\Movie and Animation\隨便看看\0030.mpg" correctly.

Apparently, the FileNavigator and the PlayListNav work differently.


Hope this can help too

[Madsly]

Once a DVD has been converted to mkv/divx/etc... it is no longer PAL/NTSC.

I meen it has fps like pal or ntsc (pal=25 and ntsc = 23.976/24/29.97).

I may add a feature to execute an external program when detecting PAL/NTSC DVDs. But from what I understand, you can already do it with AnyDVD.

It's only for inserted DVDs into drive.

Imho it'll be very usefull for any video content from DVD/HDD/NetWork.

Like this http://jump.to/dvdautorefresh

So if i open "pal" video, then zp launch powerstrip`s profile "dvdPAL", if NTSC - "dvdNTSC".

May be for divx/mkv better to use another profile "mkvPAL/mkvNTSC"... it must be flexible.

What do you think about it?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ps What do you think about making "ZP-Pack" like "codecs pack" or "gordian knot pack".

It will consists of
freeware DVD decoder (intervideo?),
freeware audio decoder (ac3filter?),
freeware audio/video decoders (cdda/ogg/etc/vp62),
freeware audio/video postprocessors (ffdshow, some winamp(?) audio dsp)
freeware audio renders (Reclock)
some usefull freeware stuff (Powerstrip control).

[Blight]

I'm not making codec packs, I believe them to be evil and can screw with your system. ZP has a formats page which allows you to download codecs on a per-needed basis.

As far as frame rates... MKV don't have a fixed frame rate, they can contain any frame rate. As such they don't really report a frame rate and ZP just guesstimates the frame rate.

Executing something based on a media file's frame rate is just a recepie for instability.

[Blight]

louismo:
I still can't duplicate this, doing EXACTLY what you suggested.

How are you running these files? Is ZP running between sessions?

[Madsly]

Yeap, mkv just a container... i mean any video decoder (divx/xvid/vp62/etc...) in media mode.

Executing something based on a media file's frame rate is just a recepie for instability.
You can make it an option.
-----

For example:
I live in PAL country (50Hz), but there are alots of NTSC DVDs (usually 23.976). So how can i view ntsc video without stutter?

1. Switch my tv to NTSC (60Hz).
2. Stay in PAL (50Hz) and speed up audio with ReClock.

It's not problem to stay in PAL mode if i play stereo thru spdif.
But with DD/DTS 5.1 i can't do this trick.
(With SoundStorm i can do DD coding realtime, but it's not good for audio)

DVDAutoRefresh don't helps if i take DVD from HDD or mkv/divx with AC3/DTS audio track.

You know that to play NTSC/PAL DVD with ffdshow i need to run manually NTSC/PAL.reg file.

So IMO better way is to have automatic content detection in ZP (algorithm like in ReClock).

Am I right?

[Blight]

Doing what reclock does is insanely complex and not 100% reliable. I will be adding an option to launch something on PAL/NTSC DVDs, but NOT on media files.

[Madsly]

I will be adding an option to launch something on PAL/NTSC DVDs
Thats great!

but NOT on media files.
Why not? Is it so different?...

Doing what reclock does is insanely complex and not 100% reliable.
You don't need to do Reclock's job. I'm talking about fps detecting algorithm.

There are many divx with strange fps: 23.96/24.05 - its NTSC 60Hz; 25.04/24.98 - its PAL 50Hz.

In 1st case switch to PAL mode, 2nd - NTSC mode. You can make a filter by resolution and file lengh, or may be ask user to verify switch.

[midiboy]

Blight,


I am afraid what Madsly suggested would be a very good thing indeed. In fact, I have to say that being able to launch "something" on detection of Pal or NTSC DVD is not nearly as important as being able to do that for media files. Why ? Because for DVD´s there are options availabled already ( AnyDVD can launch files on DVD detection as does DVDAutorefresh)

But it would really, really help if you could provide a way to run something on detection of either PAL or NTSC media files. Reclock does that but, unfortunately, even reclock 1.4 has some serious stability issues and Ogo, the author has not reappeared for months so it would be really nice to have some basic way of running a batch file upon playback of NTSC or PAL media files.

If you say it is impossible, then so it be it but it would be very nice. You seem to already be able to check framerate for media files ( Playing information under the Dialogs right click menu shows framerate for media files ) and one can "deduct" PAL or NTSC from that information as Madsly wrote. Of course there will always be cases where this information cannot be absolutely correct ( for 15fps movies for instance) but at least the vast majority of files could easily be detected:

59-60fps: NTSC video
23-24fps: NTSC film
24,5-25,5: PAL

Right ?

BYe,
Alex